Universal Music Group is currently in negotiations with social media platform TikTok over the usage of its artists’ music. As of Thursday morning, the music of artists like Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, BTS, Drake and others who are currently signed with UMG will no longer be featured on the app.
The partnership between UMG and TikTok has been huge for both the app and the music company. Videos with millions of views containing music from UMG artists now find themselves completely silent.
“TikTok’s success as one of the world’s largest social platforms has been built in large part on the music created by our artists and songwriters,” UMG stated in an open letter published Tuesday.
UMG’s former contract with the social media giant expired on Wednesday. The music company released a statement titled “An Open Letter to the Artist and Songwriter Community — Why We Must Call Time Out on TikTok” on Tuesday morning about its partnership with TikTok and why it feels the platform is treating its artists unfairly.
“TikTok proposed paying our artists and songwriters at a rate that is a fraction of the rate that similarly situated major social platforms pay,” the letter stated. “Ultimately TikTok is trying to build a music-based business, without paying fair value for the music.”
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The letter touches on TikTok’s willingness to let artificial intelligence recordings flood the app, as well as its “demanding a contractual right which would allow this content to massively dilute the royalty pool for human artists, in a move that is nothing short of sponsoring artist replacement by AI.”
In their letter, UMG described TikTok’s negotiation tactics as bullying. According to the statement, the app’s most recent contract with UMG was worth far less than previous deals and did not reflect market values or TikTok’s growth in recent years.
“How did it try to intimidate us?,” the statement read. “By selectively removing the music of certain of our developing artists, while keeping on the platform our audience-driving global stars.”
According to NPR, TikTok has now removed all music from all UMG artists. Some musicians have responded on the app, including singer-songwriter Noah Kahan.
“I won’t be able to promote my music on TikTok anymore,” Kahan said in a video. “But luckily I’m not a TikTok artist, right?”
Some content creators have started making memes referring to the controversy, filming popular dances to miscellaneous background instrumentals.
Other creators have responded by simply singing the UMG sounds themselves, such as Mikael Arellano, the creator of a dance to Taylor Swift’s “Bejeweled” that went viral on the app.
“TikTok’s tactics are obvious: use its platform power to hurt vulnerable artists and try to intimidate us into conceding to a bad deal that undervalues music and shortchanges artists and songwriters as well as their fans,” UMG stated in the letter.
The music company appears to have no intention of backing down, meaning TikTok will have to agree to a new contract before any music is returned to the app.
“We honor our responsibilities with the utmost seriousness,” UMG stated. “Intimidation and threats will never cause us to shirk those responsibilities.”
